The proposed Center for Health Communication and Marketing (CHCM) will contribute to public health by conducting cutting-edge research to inform the design and dissemination of health communication and marketing interventions and practices. CHCM will focus on understanding the relationships between at-risk populations and their contexts, communication strategies, messages, and behavior change. CHCM will be located within the Center for Health/HIV Intervention and Prevention at the University of Connecticut, taking advantage of a synergy in research purpose and a wide range of expertise, including successful development of cutting-edge health interventions, strong theoretical and methodological orientation, focus on at-risk populations across a range of health issues, and a solid grounding of the literature based on meta analyses. The Specific Aims will be to (1) advance basic theoretical understanding of health communication and marketing and its role in health behavior change, decision-making, and reactions to emergencies among people in diverse cultures, organizations, and policy contexts, (2) develop new understanding about the interrelationships between at-risk populations, communication strategies, messages, and behavior that can directly inform the design of health communication and marketing interventions; (3) monitor existing health communication and marketing practices that may impede or improve health; (4) produce innovative theoretically driven, evidence-based health communication and social marketing interventions; (5) improve theory and practice of dissemination and translation of theory- and evidence-based interventions for different types of health-promoting organizations and diverse communities; (6) actively disseminate successful evidence-based interventions and public health practices; and (7) support interdisciplinary collaborations resulting in new research proposals, innovative interventions, and significant advances in theory and methods. Project 1 will develop an abstinence and safer sex intervention aimed at emerging adults in urban setting using a computer game. Project 2 will implement an innovative community-based intervention using urban hip-hop culture to reduce drug and alcohol use among inner-city youth. With oversight from a prestigious scientific review board, the Scientific Core of CHCM will host a web site on successful interventions identified by meta-analysis, research monitoring existing health communication and marketing practices, and sponsor conferences, a lecture series, and small seed grants. CHCM will actively pursue relationships with a wide range of organizations through an External Advisory Board of Professionals composed of representatives from a state public health department, health and communication related businesses, health delivery organizations, community-based organizations, and health-oriented foundations. [unreadable] [unreadable] [unreadable]